The present invention relates to an aircraft flight deck audio system and a method for controlling such an audio system.
The audio system shown in FIG. 1 includes a central management unit 10 and three terminals 20a, 20b and 20c, referred to below as the pilot terminal, the co-pilot terminal and the third-man terminal respectively. Each terminal 20 (a reference without a letter denotes a terminal or an element of any one of the terminals 20) comprises a headset 21 provided with two earphones 21L and 21R and a microphone 22. Generally speaking, it could also comprise a handheld microphone, an oxygen-mask microphone, one or two loudspeakers for the pilot and also the co-pilot. The signals processed by each terminal 20 are digital signals. Each terminal 20 also comprises an analog/digital converter 23 enabling the analog signals originating from the microphone 22 to be digitized. Similarly, each terminal 20 comprises an analog/digital converter 24 enabling the signals that will be supplied to the earphones 21R and 21L to be converted into analog form.
Each terminal 20 is connected to the central management unit 10 via an uplink 30 to supply the digital signals originating from the microphone 22 of said terminal 20 (via the converter 23) to this central unit 10 and a downlink 31 to supply digital signals originating from the central unit 10 to the headset 21 of said terminal 20 (via the converter 24).
In a manner known per se, the central management unit 10 comprises a router 11 which, on the one hand, routes the digital signals of each of the uplinks 30 originating from the microphones 22 to its corresponding output S (toward the output Sa for the uplink 30a, the output Sb for the uplink 30b and the output Sc for the uplink 30c), and, on the other hand, routes the digital signals present on an input E toward the corresponding downlink 31 (the input Ea toward the downlink 31a, the input Eb toward the downlink 31b and the input Ec toward the downlink 31c).
According to aeronautical procedures, if an audio link between a terminal of either the pilot 20a or the co-pilot 20b and the central management unit 10 is defective, the aircraft is not authorized to take off, which incurs relatively high indirect costs. A need therefore exists for a solution enabling this risk to be minimized without jeopardizing flight safety.